On October 16th- In the Year 1536

On October 16th
In the year 1536
A pitiful figure was led
To his lone sentence of death

Having been in a damp dark dungeon
For a year and a half with no sun
He was brought forth out of the castle
And hoisted to a post along the wall

Then, given a moment...he uttered aloud
A prayer that the bible, in English, be allowed
He having been blessed to know many languages
Had translated it from Greek and Roman pages

As a religious man, he was a devoted student
Who against clergy, dared to declare an argument
Ignorance... he'd stated was completely pervasive
So, he vowed to make the scriptures purely persuasive

That... each might turn to and read God's word often
As even a farmer could search and possess them
He, inspired with courage and determined faith,
Felt his calling to put man in control of his fate

This was perceived as a threat to the church of his time
As they were adamant he'd be casting pearls before swine
With hope that God above would open up the kings eyes
He was strangled and burned...doubly sure...and as a martyr he died

William Tyndale we thank you
And fully express our gratitude
May we, known as the common man
Take the scriptures unto our hands

And like the farmer of the plough field who searched much and prayed
May our questions and prayers to God, all the more, daily be raised
May we each feel the scriptures are our greatest treasure
A blessing to hold we cannot even begin to measure

The Blessing of Scripture
Elder D. Todd Christofferson
Ensign, May 2010, 32

The Bibles were smuggled into England, where they were in great demand and much prized by those who could get them. They were shared widely but in secret. The authorities burned all the copies they could find. Nevertheless, within three years of Tyndale’s death, God did indeed open King Henry VIII’s eyes, and with publication of what was called the “Great Bible,” the scriptures in English began to be publicly available. Tyndale’s work became the foundation for almost all future English translations of the Bible, most notably the King James Version.1

William Tyndale was not the first, nor the last, of those who in many countries and languages have sacrificed, even to the point of death, to bring the word of God out of obscurity. We owe them all a great debt of gratitude. We owe perhaps an even greater debt to those who faithfully recorded and preserved the word through the ages, often with painstaking labor and sacrifice—Moses, Isaiah, Abraham, John, Paul, Nephi, Mormon, Joseph Smith, and many others. What did they know about the importance of scriptures that we also need to know? What did people in 16th-century England, who paid enormous sums and ran grave personal risks for access to a Bible, understand that we should also understand?